By Peter Drysdale
One of the joys of fundraising is, of course, being able to give money to those in need, or maybe buy things that would be appreciated. The club has provided Wild Tribe Heroes books to five local primary schools and is contributing £500 to St. Catherine’s Hospice, to help with the landscaping at their new premises. Easter gave us the opportunity to visit the hospice and present a quantity of eggs for the patients, which had been kindly provided by Morrisons in Oxted, so this time we didn’t actually need to buy them! Morrisons knew we would take them to a good place!
Our next fundraising event on 18 May (15:00 – 17:00) is our annual Swimathon at de Stafford School: an opportunity for local groups to raise funds for themselves and test their swimming prowess – all ages can take part. Proceeds are divided 50/50 between participating teams and Lions’ charities.
A really big project, involving all the 40 or so Lions Clubs in South East England, is the ongoing support of the Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance (KSS). The helicopters are centrally based at Redhill Aerodrome, with the administration offices at Rochester Airport.
2022 was the busiest year so far in their 35-year history: they were called to 3,224 missions and helped provide lifesaving care to 1,928 patients. Of these, the most common callout was to road traffic collisions, which accounted for 30% of their missions. In just the first half of 2023, KSS was called to 1,510 missions and attended to 880 of the most seriously injured people in the South East. That’s 10 missions and six people every single day – and they fly 24/7.
During this time, medical jobs increased, with more patients experiencing cardiac arrest, stroke and complex breathing issues, such as asthma. They are given expert treatment and care at the scene, be it in the wilds of the country or beside a busy road, and often in the pouring rain…the paramedics are hero medical workers!
The recent provision of seven VScan hand-held ultrasound units for all KSS aircraft and rapid response vehicles, brings the current total of all Lions projects with KSS over the past 12 years to around £425,000.
And the work goes on. The Lions of South East England’s next pledge is to provide eleven sets of newly-designed medical equipment bags. These vital items will make it easier for medical crews to care for and treat patients in the field – sometimes literally as, by definition, the air ambulance often attends incidents where land ambulances cannot go. We donated half of the profit from our last quiz towards one of these bags, which costs over £3,500.
There is also a small fleet of rapid response vehicles which can sometimes be a better option than a helicopter. The life-saving service provided by KSS is vital to the wellbeing of all people in our area, and we can truly say that the Lions are helping in the fight to save lives.
Talking of fundraising quizzes…our next one is on 15 June, in the White Hart Barn, Godstone, and half the tickets have already gone! Telephone Lion Tony on 01883 335945 to get yours.
Caterham, Oxted & Godstone Lions Club was founded in 1978. Our membership comprises people of all ages who have a strong desire to help deserving causes in the Tandridge area. We also support national and international disaster relief.
We regularly hold fundraising events to raise money in order for us to be able to do this. These include quiz nights, tribute band concerts, a swimathon & country-themed dinner evenings. We also provide food and drinks at the annual Godstone Fete on August bank holiday.
In December, our Christmas float tours the local streets with Santa on board, and we hold collections at supermarkets. We also have an active social programme.
We are all volunteers, and our motto is ‘Ordinary people, amazing things’.
We would love to hear from anyone who thinks they would like to find out more about our very friendly club. Our membership secretary is Tony Carter, whose contact number is 01883 741809 or you can email him on tonylcarter@outlook.com.
The club also has a minibus available for community use – contact Lion David on 01342 893353
